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Every culture has its own trickster character. The Southern Appalachian Mountain trickster is Jack, whom readers may know from traditional stories like "Jack in the Giant's Newground" and "Jack and the Bean Tree."
The stories in Trickster Jack, which focus on the shenanigans of Jack and his older brothers, are actually tall tales emerging from Reid Gilbert's tricky imagination. Set in the Southern Appalachians around the end of the nineteenth century, these tales describe actual activities of the time, such as making a wooden wagon with white oak rounds for wheels, fetching water from wells with windlasses, and using outdoor outhouses.
Trickster Jack introduces those readers from outside the Appalachians to some of the ways and manners of that region, while reacquainting Appalachians themselves with their own heritage. Regardless of where you hail, there is plenty in this whimsical collection to delight and entertain you.
About the author
E. Reid Gilbert has led a creative and self-actualized life for over eighty years. Having grown up in the Virginia Mountains, he has expressed himself through a myriad of life transformations as a Methodist and Unitarian minister, an Appalachian storyteller, a Mime and scholar of English, Sociology and Asian Theatre. A produced playwright and writer, he has written several books since retiring from the above-mentioned professions. His several books include Trickster Jack, inspired by Sri Thananchai, the traditional prankster of Thailand, Shall We Gather at the River, set in the Virginia Mountains an What Matters, a collection of 114 poems, ranging from Limerick to spiritual to love poems. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.
